Love Story

AT LONG LAST, we start our official comics year of 2017 in earnest. After an unusually long winter hibernation, we hit the road for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this very weekend. Normally, we knock the rust off with MoCCA, the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art Festival in our hometown of New York City. Alas, circumstances scattered us both to the winds, but for those of you who did attend our beloved MoCCA, you may have caught sight of one Keren Katz. Keren drops some real knowledge at TCAF, the most truly international comic show, with her big debut, the Academic Hour. So it all turned out okay in the end.

The Academic Hour makes a mushy romantic out of just about anyone. Keren’s gorgeous, mysterious and seductive masterpiece charmed the pants off us and we’re bitter, husky, old dudes. Swing by our new digs, upstairs at table 233, and get some. Make sure you take a look at the divine Ms. Katz’s schedule, though, as she’s a busy bee. Saturday finds Keren at “Expressive Lines And The Power of Restraint,” talking composition and inspiration with a murderer’s row of Hellen Jo, Ron Rege Jr., Maggie Umber, and Xia Gordon. Later, she dances across the street to ride R. Sikoryak‘s “Carousel: Cartoon Slide Shows and Picture Performances.” Keren studied dance long and hard before she studied art, so expect a real performance to go with those pictures. Bright and early on Sunday morning, she puts her teacher hat on for a Book Shrinking Workshop. Keren’s got the goods, but BYO media and make a mini scale take on your best book. We swear this a real thing. Look, there’s a picture right here.

While we’re here, let’s catch up with the folks in the stables at Secret Acres. The guy who made Sick, our big book of TCAF 2016, the recovering Gabby Schulz, surprised us by dropping a collection of webcomics detailing his years of toil on the previously mentioned Sick. Our pal and comics’ faithful husband, Alec Longstreth, put out Gabby’s a Process of Drastically Reducing One’s Expectations through his brand new imprint, Phase 8. Way to go, guys! Listen up with the gang at Comics Alternative, as they bravely talk to Gabby about APODROE on their podcast. Meanwhile, Theo Ellsworth, Capacity king, and the good ship Kuš! performed an Exorcism. Sadly, we do not yet possess an Exorcism, but it’s Theo, man. Get a gander at Theo’s giant Borne bear right here, now on tour everywhere. Finally, our man, Edie Fake, returned to Gaylord Phoenix, with a brand new installment, beautifully printed by Perfectly Acceptable. Edie’s Memory Palaces art made its way into the New York Times, too, accompanying a sad and moving piece on disappearing gayborhoods. Sigh.

We promise to come right back here after the big show with our usual rundown of all things TCAF, which itself is like all things to all people. How we love TCAF! We also promise some big news about what we’ve got coming up for the rest of the comics year of 2017. Right now, though, we gotta get packing.